Michigan Democratic Senate Candidate Advocated for Mass Release of Incarcerated Individuals in 2020 Webinar

Abdul El-Sayed, a prominent Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, spoke at a September 2020 webinar hosted by the University of Michigan’s Carceral State Project, where he advanced the argument that the incarceration of individuals indicated a broader societal failure to address underlying problems. He proposed that, to rectify this, people should be released from correctional facilities.

While a portion of El-Sayed’s reasoning centered on the public health risks posed by overcrowded prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, he also supported the continued release of individuals from jails and prisons even after the pandemic's conclusion. These remarks were made during a period marked by the widespread